Do you think blizzard is under performing?

[ponies]

I don't really follow other games but with the lack of content in wow in a year, not even a filler raid, the lack of anything interesting in blizzcon this year do you think blizzard is slacking as a pay to play game.
Personally I feel that if i am paying to play a game i would like new content within a reasonable amount of time.

I know there are a lot of people on these forums who know more about how games are developed and how long it takes or whatever and will back blizzard but with as many players are blizzard has i think that shouldn't really matter.

What do you think?

[Packing an i5]

They will never stop caring completely Wow pays their mortgages, but they have become more interested in pleasing their shareholders. Their strategy seems based on the Short term, how can we milk wow for all its got as fast as possible before its over? Simple, casualize the game and make it as accessible to as many people as possible and pump out Expansions quickly plus add more microtransactions. In the Short Term this will earn them another billion dollars easy but I think they are hurting the long term health of the game they dont seem interested in keeping the game remotely recognizable to its original state or putting a final cap on the max level. They have resorted to using shortcuts to get out of doing work as well, this next expansions new continent is just outland but it looks different. Im sure many assets were reused.

This next Xpac also does not feature any new battlegrounds, arenas and only has 2 raid Tiers. The emphasis is on garrisons which just seem like another chore to coexist with or replace proffessions. They gutted alot of the usefulness of proffessions as well for example I do leatherworking on my main and in WOD i will no longer be able to produce leg patches which is how I make my money or place an enchant on my wrist.

I dont make gear its impossible to learn all the recipes and make the gear unless you raid. My friend is a raider and hes maxed out on motes of harmony , as a pvper they are slow to gain from grinding on mobs the fastest gain is from doing scenarios if im lucky I do 3-5 just to get one Harmony.

So my Proff as been rendered useless to me, my racial is being nerfed (Undead) my class hasnt seen any significant changes (Rogue) I see no reason to buy this next expansion.

[ponies]

this next expansions new continent is just outland but it looks different. Im sure many assets were reused.

Well a new continent would have required more from a creative team $$$

I hate to be that guy i am very open to the idea of purchasing level 90's but the price of a level 90 costing the same as an expansion also irritates me, and i get even more irritated knowing people who have made this transaction multiple times.

Maybe I am just mad at Blizzard.
This is a totally different company than the Diablo 2 days

[melodramocracy]

They perform as well as they need to. Finding how little content players will deem satisfactory is always a trick, because why make excessive amounts of ... anything, when you can save it for future content?

It's the same reason (nearly) weekly maintenance windows still exist. People tolerate it.

[Darsithis]

They have resorted to using shortcuts to get out of doing work as well, this next expansions new continent is just outland but it looks different. Im sure many assets were reused.

It is not "Outland looking different". That's utter garbage. It's not re-used assets. The only parts of it that are even remotely related are Nagrand and the concept behind the continent, as it takes place in the past. Everything else was designed fresh with all new assets.

Blizzard isn't underperforming. I'm not happy with the huge delay in the expansion but I'd rather have a stellar Warlords patch than see development time from there being pulled into making content for the expansion we're walking away from.

[Srg56]

I don't really follow other games but with the lack of content in wow in a year, not even a filler raid, the lack of anything interesting in blizzcon this year do you think blizzard is slacking as a pay to play game.
Personally I feel that if i am paying to play a game i would like new content within a reasonable amount of time.

I know there are a lot of people on these forums who know more about how games are developed and how long it takes or whatever and will back blizzard but with as many players are blizzard has i think that shouldn't really matter.

What do you think?

I remember reading an article about EA practices(industry) and game design philosophy which(i'm paraphrasing) said that what they try to do is balance customer anger/discomfort with making money. So what that essentially means is creating enough content to keep you paying, but not at 100% the rate and quality that they're capable of.

So, the question is, "Is blizzard under performing?" The answer is yes, yes they are, for business reasons. They're here to make money, not to create art, or to keep you happy.

[TheTaurenOrc]

Usually using quality vs quantity is a good measure of a company's performance through its products.

Unfortunately I feel Blizzard has failed to meet either of these, they kind of straddle to two. I don't believe we have had any really bad content in MoP, but we haven't had much of it either. WoD at least on launch isn't looking like it justifies a year of no content on live either. For these reasons I think they are, or at least have over the last year underperformed.

[Zabrinka]

Are they making a game that's good enough to keep millions of people paying for it? Yes.

Are they making the best MMORPG that's currently available in the (English-speaking) world? Yes.

Are they making the best game they could possibly be making? Probably not. The competition isn't good enough to force them to do so. But that isn't really the standard by which they should be judged.

[Terahertz]

I feel like blizzard constantly shoot themselves in the foot by claiming that they're "working on a new expansion" when the first has just launched, which results to people expecting a ton. It also hasn't helped the fact that blizz said that they were going to, or at least wanted to pump out expansions quicker, yet SoO has (I believe, not sure) lasted the longest out of all end content patches.

So, in a way, yes, I do think blizzard is under performing.

[MoanaLisa]

They are either over-promising or under-performing. One of the two or a bit of both. We don't help much in that by parsing every syllable that anyone says and inscribing it in stone as something that will happen guaranteed.

But realistically, this last year since Blizzcon is full of stuff that didn't quite get there or Blizzard not hitting their intentions. I won't call them promises exactly. But when they say then intend to do this or that and then consistently don't (shorter expansions!) that's a problem.

Doing a lot of the former (over-promising specifically or by implication) can easily lead to the perception of under-performance.

[ponies]

So, the question is, "Is blizzard under performing?" The answer is yes, yes they are, for business reasons. They're here to make money, not to create art, or to keep you happy.

I understand what you're saying but you have to understand that as a client you are working with blizzard, you are paying them for a service and service is something they need to deliver.

Lets change the scenario a little bit and say you go to this very nice restaurant once a month, its the best restaurant in the city and millions of people go there every year. you love it it tickles your fancy. the food is good and the service is great.
After going there once a month for almost 9 years now, the restaurant knows you and sees you as a repeat customer, your server knows you by name but tries to please you less and less because he knows that you will order your food leave you 15-20% gratuity and come back next month.
Is this any good for you or for this business?

(Off topic- I need to enrol in some english classes, english isn't my first language)

[Tharkkun]

Usually using quality vs quantity is a good measure of a company's performance through its products.

Unfortunately I feel Blizzard has failed to meet either of these, they kind of straddle to two. I don't believe we have had any really bad content in MoP, but we haven't had much of it either. WoD at least on launch isn't looking like it justifies a year of no content on live either. For these reasons I think they are, or at least have over the last year underperformed.

Aside from the ridiculous delay between SOO and the WOD release content was released in higher quantity and faster than prior expansions. People ignore all the little features being added to WoD and focus on the major features. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Ferocity]

Answer lies in merge of Blizzard and Activi$ion. It's a wonder that WoW is still up and alive (though it definitely feels like it is on life-support...). Activi$ion, as a publisher, was notorious for destroying quite a number of games (in other words - cash-milk the game developers).

Red signal for many was the introduction of cash shop stuff shortly after the merge and replacing Lower Karazhan raid with Naxxramas 2.0 (as well as 1 "surprise" raid (probably Gundrak or Ahn'Kahet), which never managed to "surprise" us as it was replaced by ToC).

It is not "Outland looking different". That's utter garbage. It's not re-used assets. The only parts of it that are even remotely related are Nagrand and the concept behind the continent, as it takes place in the past. Everything else was designed fresh with all new assets.

It isn't a secret that players were looking towards Azshara/N'Zoth expansion, Emerald Dream Expansion, Burning Legion expansion, even Ner'Zhul expansion (as he is still active and controls the current "lich king"), there is unexplored Xoroth out there, there is Chromatus undefeated, etc., etc., etc.. Out of all this, they chose the worst move used in soap-operas: completely new, entirely non-interesting and absolutely irrelevant (due to "time-travel" stuff) storyline. Developers called MoP as a "filler" expansion, WoD is "filler" expansion too, is it too much to not expect 2 "filler" expansions in a row?

[Darkulous]

This is the first time we've had back to back Blizzcons with no new content released. Maybe with Titan out of the way they can put all their MMO focus and resources back into WoW. I think Titan has had an impact on WoW the last 5-6 years.

[Darsithis]

Aside from the ridiculous delay between SOO and the WOD release content was released in higher quantity and faster than prior expansions. People ignore all the little features being added to WoD and focus on the major features. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised.

That's what I'm hoping for. I don't think they're under-performing - they're pushing everything they have into WoD but in turn, neglecting the playerbase in MoP.

[shoc]

One of the biggest reasons why WoD was delayed by 6 months was because they doubled their team size and had to shift resources away from development to train the new hires.

So are they underperforming? No way. At least, it's too early to tell how the bigger team size is going to affect the rate and quality of the content they put out.

[Darsithis]

It isn't a secret that players were looking towards Azshara/N'Zoth expansion, Emerald Dream Expansion, Burning Legion expansion, even Ner'Zhul expansion (as he is still active and controls the current "lich king"), there is unexplored Xoroth out there, there is Chromatus undefeated, etc., etc., etc.. Out of all this, they chose the worst move used in soap-operas: completely new, entirely non-interesting and absolutely irrelevant (due to "time-travel" stuff) storyline. Developers called MoP as a "filler" expansion, WoD is "filler" expansion too, is it too much to not expect 2 "filler" expansions in a row?

Where did the developers call Mists of Pandaria a "filler" expansion?

I don't know what the playerbase wants. What I've gathered from years of being a moderator here is a strong sentiment for The Burning Crusade and a desire to return to Outland. I do see plenty of fan-made expansions exploring concepts I'd love to as well, but none of that makes either MoP or WoD "filler" expansions. I don't even get the idea behind the term. Every expansion has been a concrete, distinct part of the storyline of our characters and the universe a whole.

[Tyraena]

I think they are doing the best they can (Blizzard) within the restrictions placed on them (Activision). I think Warlords will be a good expansions as far as story, questing, and challenge. But i don't think it is as good as previous expansions (considering the price increase) as previous expansions. I think the buy through and subsequent subloss in the quarter following release will be a sign they had better bulk up the content release, and follow with a stellar 100-105/110 expac taking us back into conflict with the legion in some way.

[WintersLegion]

Well considering the plan is for the next expansion after Warlords to take up where Warlords left off just like Warlords is taking up where MoP left off you will be really disappointed if you think MoP and Warlords are filler expansions

[Darsithis]

I think they are doing the best they can (Blizzard) within the restrictions placed on them (Activision).

Activision did not place any restrictions on Blizzard and does not control World of Warcraft.